Hints and Tips
How you play the game is very dependant on your individual play style. This page lists some hints and tips discovered by players through their game play. Unlike other pages in this Wiki, the information presented here is a mixture of fact and opinion. Give these suggestions a try, but it is up to you to decide how you wish to play your game and what works best for you. __TOC__ Hints and Tricks from Players Do you have a tip for playing the game? Add it here! Just remember to be logged in and to add your name and date you added this tip (the date is important in case it becomes outdated after an update or DLC). 'Always take a Crowbar to the Supermarket' When you go to the Supermarket, you will face one of two encounters. Regardless of which one you face, the Crowbar will be useful... * "Expect to meet other scavengers" * "Might be military patrols" If there are other scavengers, the crowbar will be useful for unlocking a locked cabinet and opening a locked door. If the military are present, the crowbar will be useful for defending yourself and others against hostile military patrols. Though feel free to take more weapons and armour if that's your style. See Special Events for more specific information about these encounters (with Spoilers). Pay Attention to Special Events :See main article: Special Events Pay attention to phase and/or special events that are announced via the radio, as these can change the prices of items with Traders and which encounters your survivors will face while scavenging. 'Only Trade for Wood with Franko' Wood takes up a lot of inventory space. When Franko turns up at your door to trade with you, clean him out of any/all Wood from him. This is then the equivalent of you getting an extra nighttime scavenge for free, and will free up your scavenger to loot for special items. Later in the game, Components will become scarce and you'll want to clean him out of those items because you can't get them anywhere else. - Razorgirl July 6, 2016 (UTC) Always pay attention to containers more than trash piles When you have a goal of scavenging, you could usually look in places that would normally have those things. For example, fridges usually store a lot of food and lockers usually store more expensive items like Jewelry, and trash piles could store more materials and wood. Pay Attention to Little Things Just like special events are HUGE 'warnings for what's to come, paying attention to more minute changes can give a more advanced notice of events. For example, try to see how much fuel you need to use in the heater. If you use less fuel over the same amount of time, it can be assumed that the cold days will pass soon. Another example is noticing certain patterns. I've noticed, during the Katia and Pavle scenario, You will never get attacked during the first night, and you get attacked every other day, or every third day. Also, when going scavenging, understanding the AI patterns of movement, will help you plan to avoid- or attack- the entities. 'Get Tools from Matey Quickly and Cheaply The easy low-cost way to get tools is to trade medicine (Herbal Meds and Medications) to Matey at the Garage. This is one way to get the Hatchet early. The Hatchet is super useful because it... * lets survivors chop all of the unnecessary furniture in the shelter for extra wood and fuel * lets you use the extra wood to help upgrade the Workshop to the Improved Workshop, and then craft the 3x Board Ups. This increases your shelter defense against raids * also counts as a weapon for base defense - User:Flyingflea July 6, 2016 (UTC) Never Kill Trader At Specific Locations If They Beg For Mercy I guess everyone know that each 2 days, trader's inventory replenishes. Sooooooo, if you don't kill the trader, That trader's inventory keep replenishes (Since the trader is still alive ), and they still beg for mercy for the whole game. SO each 2 days we 'll have FREE MEDS,BANDAGES,CANNED FOOD,And RAW FOOD! (Tested with Pyotr in Brothel) - User:Hhfruh Jan, 27-2017 Keep Track of Things * You can play this game more efficiently by keeping track of your inventory, resource demand, and scavenging progress etc. I shared my own cheat sheet in my user page, with detailed instruction provided. I also shared some profitability analysis and general strategies there. --KinectNinja (talk) 18:21, February 10, 2019 (UTC) * It is hard to know when your survivors need to be fed if you're coming back to the game after a while. Knowing when to feed your survivors can be hard because of this. Assuming you are consistently feeding your survivors every other day starting on the first day, you can just mentally note to feed them on odd days (Day 1, Day 3, Day 5, so on). Quitting the game when survivors are not hungry will also let you come back to the game knowing exactly where they are in terms of hunger. -Midoryu Dec. 12, 2019 (UTC) Building The rule of thumb when it comes to building is to judge whether you really need the structure or not, and whether if upgrading now or later would mean anything. For example, Chairs and Armchairs are considered low-tier choices compared to more important structures, like the Bed or Stove. * Beds are vital for survival; they allow survivors to rest during the day to recover from being Tired. During daytime, a single bed can remove Tired status from two characters. Sleeping in bed at night allow survivors to recover from wounds and illnesses, though the chance of recovery is remarkably low. When the amount of characters gets higher, more beds will have to be built * Building the Metal Workshop allows your characters to craft tools and weapons, like the crowbar and the Knife. However, the Metal Workshop is not exactly essential, as the items it makes can be easily acquired somewhere else, like at the Garage * The Stove is also an important addition to your shelter. Cooked Meals are much more filling than raw food and can (presumably) reduce risk of getting sick that would normally result from eating raw food. Unlike ingredients, Cooked Meals cannot be stolen in raids * The Rainwater Collector is essential for self-sufficiency when it comes to Clean Water, which is mainly used for cooking, and also for the making of moonshine and for growing Vegetables. When lots of water is needed, having more than one collector can be useful Advanced Building The long-term goal should be to become self-sufficient or, at the very least, to reduce dependence on trading and scavenging as much as possible. This way, your survivors can still get by in times of scarcity. Certainly the player can still depend on other sources (e.g trading) for resources, but these sources might not be always readily available (due to military fighting or snow). * The Radio allows you to prepare for crisis and inflation: cold weather, military fighting, armed raids, item scarcity, etc. It will even inform you when ceasefire (i.e. the end of the game) are imminent * Upgrade the Workshop to Tiers 2 and 3. Note that while having a Tier 3 workshop is nice (as it allows you to craft nearly every tool, weapon and piece of armor in the game), it isn't usually necessary early-on, so don't rush into it (especially if you aren't planning to utilize advanced armor and weaponry) * Produce your own food. Building a Trap for Small Animals can provide a reliable source of Raw Food, and upgrading your Herbal Garden to a Vegetable Garden will do the same for vegetables (which can become costly during scarcity events later in the game). Having both is usually enough to feed even a full house of 4 survivors * As soon as you can spare the materials, block all three holes in your shelter walls (Tier 2 Workshop required) and reinforce the door (Tier 3 Workshop required). This will increase the chance of your survivors repelling raids, and reduce the chance that they will become wounded while defending. The reinforced door will also allow you to get by with fewer guards, as its alarm will awaken any sleeping survivors * The Alcohol Distiller and Herbal Workshop allow you to craft Medications and Bandages, both of which are excellent for trading Trading : See main article: Traders '' There are several Traders with fixed locations on the map. Franko, is the only trader that will knock on your door; he comes to the shelter approximately every three days * Franko is a useful source of Components, Parts and Wood - large amount of these items would cost you one or two expensive things, but can save several nights of scavenging * At the Garage, tools are extremely cheap. Consider buying tools from Matey to sell to others or use them for your own * Trading with the military around day 35 is essential or during the cigarette and alcohol crash. They will trade 2 bandages/medications for 1 quality cigarette (with Katia) The exchange rate for items is affected by several factors: * Katia's Bargaining Skills gives a small exchange rate bonus with all traders * Some traders give more exchange rate for particular items (selling to them) than other traders. Several examples: Franko and Viktor have the best rates for weapons. Matey has the best rate for Herbal Meds, Medications, and Bandages. Bojan has the best rates for Moonshine, Pure Alcohol, and the various types of Cigarettes * A black market scenario can increase the buy and sell price of the affected goods. The Radio will inform the survivors of any black market scenarios. The various black market scenarios are: Coffee, Alcohol and Cigarettes, and Vegetables * Winter weather seems to increase the price of some goods. This is especially noted for Wood '''Scavenging' * Worried about losing an important item to a raid? If you take the item with you while scavenging, there's no way for the raiding party to steal it. (so, for example, if you really need those vegetables for the next day, take them with you while scavenging, making it impossible for raiders to grab them) * If you plan to visit a location multiple times, spend the first day to clear all hostiles, debris, locked doors and cabinets (bring a weapon, a Shovel, Crowbar, Lock Pick and Saw Blade). Try to remove as many obstacles as possible, so that on following nights you don't have to bring anything with you and can carry more back. However do try to fill up your inventory as well; normally there are loads of components and wood around the entrance of the map. On the second day (or even the first day, if you have the time), move all items you plan to loot to containers near the exit(s). This would save you time (real life time) as you wouldn't need to search the whole place every time. At around 4:00am, fill up your backpack and leave. Keep scavenging the area until you are satisfied. Remember to loot everything off the dead hostiles and stash them somewhere (if you have no inventory left or don't need them immediately), so they don't disappear the next time you visit * If you do plan on looting around an area where someone lives but don't want to steal, look for the different symbols. The one with a hand grabbing a small pile is steal, and you should know what the loot one looks like. Be warned though; trying to open owned cupboards will make the owners hostile. As of now the game doesn't show if a cupboard is 'owned', but if there are people living in the general vicinity then it is most likely owned * Theft is a crime even if you aren't detected. That trader you are trying to sell his own goods to will meet you with shotgun fire, despite the fact that he has never seen it was you who looted his "well-protected" underground safe the night before. Sometimes he will simply shoot on sight. (Not always, as Matey and some others will not attack you even if stole all his stuff (Provided that he or others didn't see you stealing)) * During the Firewood Furniture Run (number one problem in winter) keep in mind that 4 fuel take the same place as 2 wood (=2 fuel). So, chop everything you see with hatchet and take only fuel. Wood can wait Combat * When you find yourself fighting a NPCs you want to trade with, don't kill them. Only attack them until they start begging for mercy, that should make them stop attacking * Stealth kills are very effective because they mostly (depending on the combat tier of your character and the weapon they use) kill enemies with one strike. Simply hide in a closet and wait for the target to walk by. Also enemies that don't see you go in a closet wont see you in the closet * If you plan on clearing out an area, ladders are your friends. Simply find a floor/ roof with just a ladder going to it and draw the enemies to you and kick them down when they try to climb up. I also recommend a hatchet and a shotgun if you do this method, as you can shoot down the ladder hole and they can't shoot back up. * In certain a situation, If you have the rarest weapon in the game the Scoped Assault Rifle, or other guns and if you go to a place (Ruined Villa) with a place to hide and a narrow view of the enemy. You can shoot at enemies and then disappear from sight. Wait for a awhile for them to disperse. If a person is within a range for a stealth kill. Do it then run to cover if you are seen or if not go back again to the hiding place. Entertainment * Books are not just fuel. They are also good antidepressants and when not instructed to perform activities, survivors will often take out a book and read it when sitting on a chair. Most of the time, having just one is enough. * Don't ignore your survivors' addictions unless they are well fed and rested. They can commit suicide because of depression in front of other survivors if their needs are not taken care of. * Booze will cheer up your mass murdering scavenger. They say that egoist Bruno is the best candidate for such actions. * Make sure you have the means to treat depression during cold days and days when you get raided a lot. Do not kill innocents during this time. Economy * Survivors can survive 7-8 days without food, but the Hunger will severely cripple their movement and activities, delay or even prevent them from recovering from sicknesses and injuries, and can negatively affect their mood. * Don't make the option of cooking only one Cooked Meals unless you have no other option. Cooking two meals at once make your supply of Raw Food last twice as long, and saves small amounts of water and fuel. Bruno can save you even more resources with his Good Cook perk. * Save Canned Food for winter, when Raw Food and Vegetables are much harder to come by. * Cooked Meals cannot be stolen. After you've upgraded the Stove, cook as many meals as possible with vegetables to preserve a food supply (you can't upgrade the Stove if there's still Cooked Meals in it). * In some of the observed runs, coffee crisis occurs on day ~10, constant raids occur on days 12~18, cold weather days are 20~30, higher cigarette costs days ~25-30. It is good to prepare for these days (typical summer start with Marko). Game Exploits Exploits are when a player takes advantage from a feature of a game and uses it in a way that may or may not have been intended by the developers. Since This War of Mine is a solo game, there is no impact on other people if players choose to take advantage of these exploits. While they may not be entirely within the spirit of the game, it's up to each player to decide how they get their fun. 'Quit to Menu' You can quit any time and restart the day from the morning if you are not satisfied with the scavenging results, your activities during the day, or you're raided and weren't prepared. * Raid outcome seems to be generated at the beginning of each new day (after 'save takes place); so to avoid wounded characters during raids, you can restart the day until you get the "luckily no one was hurt" message. Not sure if that works for stolen items too, but chances are you are already exploiting the "anti-raid container" cheat below :) * When new characters come to join your group, you can restart the day until you get a character that would be most beneficial to your team. For example, if you start in the Summer and want to have Marin ASAP so you can conserve resources in preparation for the Winter months, you can keep restarting your day until Marin comes to your door. Same goes for any character unless you've killed them. * If your survivor dies while scavenging, you can quickly Alt+F4 to kill the game before the next day loads. The game is auto-saved at the beginning of each day. 'Unfinished Jobs You can still save some items from raiders by leaving jobs half finished in workshops, on the stove or the still. The materials will be removed from your stash when the job starts, stop immediately and the next day cancel the job and the materials will be returned to your stash. 'Don't Collect Items From the Shelter Until You Need Them' This exploit is extremely useful when starting a story with a single survivor. When the game begins, don't collect items from each of the containers in the shelter unless you are going to use them straight away. :Eg. If you search a cupboard and discover that it contains a roll of bandages, leave the bandages in the cupboard until you need to use them. If you collect them and put them in your inventory, they can be stolen during night time raids. However if you leave them in the cupboard, they will remain untouched until you need them Stash Valuables Elsewhere This exploit is less of an exploit and more of a, "survivors being smart about stashing valuables somewhere hidden". This exploit is again, super-useful if you're playing a scenario that starts with a single survivor. This should only be done if you cannot defend your shelter against night time raids. When you send your Survivor out to Scavenge for the night, take your valuables with you (food, medicine, etc. Stuff that you would be upset if it got stolen during a raid). While you are out scavenging, you can then decide if you want to take them all back to the Shelter with you, or to stash them in a Fridge or other notable location so that you can collect them when you return on another night. It's up to you to decide if keeping these items safe is worth having them take up inventory slots while your survivor is out scavenging, but it can be helpful for protecting valuable items that you don't need until a later time, like bandages, medicine, electronic parts, or weapon parts. Cheats This War of Mine is not supposed to be easy, but since it is a solo game, how you get your fun is up to you. These cheats are not endorsed by the TWOM Wiki, but they are listed here for completeness' sake and very much come with a warning of: USE AT OWN RISK! Backup Save File Since the game is auto-saved at the beginning of each day, you can easily make manual save points every couple of days or so by browsing to the save files location on your computer. At the beginning of each day, Alt + Tab out and copy the save files into a folder (called "day5" for example). You can then load a specific day by exiting the game first, then copying back the backed up files. iPhone * %APPDATA%\11bitstudios\This War Of Mine\iPhoneDefUser. Steam For the Steam version, the save files are located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Steam\userdata\STEAM ID\282070\remote. You might also want to turn off Cloud backup for this game in Steam if you are manually copying files, to keep confusion to a minimum. There are two sets of four files in 282070\remote. *One set has an .alt extension *the other has no extensions Sort them by time to see. It's a tiny backup system if you ever need it. If you kill the most-recent set, the game will use the previous one next time you Continue from Main Menu. If you have not re-started from the Main Menu yet, it effectively lets you back up to the beginning of the previous day. But it is not the previous day if you re-start the day (Continue from Main Menu); then, you'll just have two copies of the current day. The operative rule is that every time a day starts, it over-writes the older of the two sets. Some users have reported the game not updating and staying fixed on a particular day, especially when they are backing up saved games in Steam as outlined here. The solution appears to be to not store your saved games directly off of the 282070\remote Steam directory, because possibly it scans child folders. Another possible problem is if you leave an instance of Windows Explorer (file manager) with focus on or in that directory, it may be locking it and preventing updates. So don't store your files in subfolders off of 282070\remote, and/or don't leave Explorer on that folder, if you're having trouble. : Careful: Depending on your settings, if you have Windows Explorer up when you shut down your PC, it might re-load and show the same folders as before a reboot, after the reboot. And thus do a stealth lock on your game files, if that's happening, even across a reboot. You can easily tell if the files in 282070\remote are properly updating if they get updated (new file timestamps) every time a new day starts in the game. 'Trainers' If you want to use cheats, beware of having too many items. It crashes the game. CheatHappens A paid trainer for Windows that boasts several features, although people have complained about crashes and various issues MrAntiFun A free Windows trainer will give you infinite items, which will not disappear, however this trainer often causes game crashes and comes with a lot of temperamental conditions on when it can be used and if you can scavenge later. See the link for full details on how to avoid crashes when using this trainer, however here are some quick tips: * Be careful clicking too fast or too many times will crash it. Limit yourself to at most 30 duplications at a time. * For better efficiency, use right mouse clicks as that will duplicate 10 times per click. * Do not use this trainer on day one (and maybe not even day two) as it will usually cause a crash. * Only duplicate resources and trade goods, not equipment or tools. * Do not scavenge any night that you've used a trainer during the day on. * To minimize crashes, leave an item in one of the storage areas in the shelter and deposit your duplicated items into it before the day ends. If you no longer have any storage areas remaining, you can craft an axe and chop down cupboards to create one. Try to remember not to take the last item out of the storage area if you want to continue duplicating items. Cheat Engine A Cheat Table by Shinkansen that can be used as a free trainer. Cheat Engine is multiplatform, Windows and Linux (using Wine, but capable of working on Linux processes). Shinkansen's cheat table has been tested on the Windows version of the game: it may or may not work on the Linux version. This trainer can pause time progression and allows you to craft items without expending resources (including items that you shouldn't be allowed to craft, like more resources). In this way, you can also duplicate resources without any risk of crashing. This trainer is more difficult to use, however, and may require you to watch the tutorial videos first. Category:Guides and Tutorials